How to be Alone

Chapter Five: Confronting Shadows

The Sheriff's house is very cold despite the heat of the late summer outside.

"My girlfriend is asleep," Sheriff Terry tells me. "Please be quiet. Are you hungry?"

"No, thank you," I whisper. He guides me down a small hallway and opens a door to a bedroom.

"This is where you'll be staying," He points into the room. It's dark and the curtains are drawn, and it's mostly empty aside from a bed and a nightstand.

All I do is walk in and collapse. The air smells a little musty and the air has a stagnant chill. The blankets and pillows are all cold and I feel my body sinking into it when I slump over onto it. Terry closes the door and before long I'm asleep again for the night.

I wake up with both of my legs slung over the bed, only a moment before I find myself crashing down to the floor.

"It's fine, I just wish you'd have said something," A woman from the other room speaks up. I open the door and peek through to the kitchen. The morning sun is barely shining through the windows, and Terry waves me in with them.

The woman outstretches her hand to me. "My name is Elise," She says. "It's nice to meet you, Lila."

I shake her hand and rub my eye. "You, too," I say.

"There's cereal in the cabinet. Help yourself, little lady," Elise says.

"I'm going to work," Terry says, grabbing his hat and putting on his vest.

"Terry?" I ask.

"Hmm?"

"When will I go home?"

He turns the door handle and leans on the opened door. "I don't know. Soon, I promise. I'll see what I can do."

"Okay," I say. He leaves.

I make myself a bowl of cereal and eat it in silence. Elise is in her bedroom and I can hear her wrestling with some drawers. The cereal was just wheat squares and is now soggy. The milk has turned a light brown from the brown sugar Elise put in for me.

"Try this on, see if it fits," Elise rounds the corner into the dining room, which is just across from the kitchen. She puts down a tank top and brown jeans on the seat next to mine. "When you're done eating, of course."

"Thank you, Miss, um..."

"You can just call me Elise," She says. "And you're welcome."

I look in the mirror. The tank top is a little loose but It does fit. Same for the pants. I bring it up a little ways on my waist and strap the belt around to keep it up. Elise watches me leave the bathroom and she nods like "looks good."

"What should I do now?" I ask. She shrugs.

"I don't know. You can't leave the house, though." She walks over to the front door. "I need to leave for work. I'll be back at 6 and we'll have dinner. Is chicken okay?"

I nod and she leaves. So now I'm alone in this strange house for strange reasons, and frankly, I don't know what to do for 8 hours.

I watch T.V. for a couple hours, then I turn it off cause I got bored. I keep thinking about the hand and the boxes. I keep thinking about how that could've been me. Sometimes I think again that I wish it was me. But I remind myself that I don't. I just don't.

And Ryan and Anna... What's happening with them? Are they okay? Are they alive? There's a sinking feeling in my stomach when I imagine where they must be right now, or how they must be feeling if they even are alive.

I think about when I was lying on the ground in the forest. I really couldn't see anything with those flashlights in my face. Nothing except the barrel of their guns and the silhouettes above me.